Published by DC/Vertigo
At the New York Comic Con, Vertigo announced an initiative to publish
more graphic novels, going so far as to devote two editors to the
full-time acquisition and editing of such tomes. If The Alcoholic is anything to judge the publishing effort by, the new focus should be quite a success for Vertigo.
Author Jonathan Ames’ fictional story of the writer
Jonathan A.’s descent into chemical abuses is at once darkly humorous
and tenderly heart-breaking. The early publicity has focused on
Jonathan’s break up with the girl of his dreams, but as the author
points out, Jonathan deals with plenty of loss throughout the book -
women, family and friends. Ames manages to make his protagonist
completely pathetic in his unwillingness to face the problems in his
life, yet mostly likeable due to a series of humorous and unfortunate
happenings.

The unfortunately side effects of a colonic put Jonathan (the
character, not the writer, so far as I know) in the ultimate
embarrassing public situation, and many of the drunken misadventures –
including coed parties and hiding in the sand under the boardwalk to
avoid the police (it’s even funnier than it sounds) – keep the
narrative from bogging down too heavily, allowing Ames to sell the
reader on the tragedies his character faces. The relationship with his
doting, yet stern, aunt is full of moving nuances, and the unanswered
questions of a high school friendship will keep readers up at night
wondering what the friend really meant. Using 9/11, Ames writs large
the character’s internal heartbreak. Ames manages to, without
cheapening a national tragedy, bring Jonathan’s (character, not author)
confusion and uncertainty to a scale and event almost all readers will
connect to. The plight of Jonathan’s neighbor reminds everyone that
Jonathan’s troubles, though taxing, are far from insurmountable.

Artist Dean Haspiel is the perfect complement to Ames’ prose. Haspiel
brings a Kirbyian muscular line and dynamic layouts to the most mundane
setting, enabling the narrative to grab the reader’s attention without
sacrificing the everyday clarity of Jonathan A.’s all-too-human
foibles. Keeping the “camera” still and splitting panels during a
conversation between Jonathan and his aunt, Haspiel allows the
dialogue’s cadence to carry the scene, yet he’s able to exaggerate the
more outlandish sequences to make the scene even funnier than Ames’
description. You have to see for yourself the depiction of a dragon
roaring free of the protagonist’s pants!

It’s a rare book that can mix scatological humor with national tragedy
and still succeed completely. Building on the strong efforts of
stand-alone graphic novels Silverfish, The Quitter, The Originals, Can’t Get No and Sloth, The Alcoholic finds Vertigo establishing itself as a publisher of diverse and entertaining book-length comics.